Come down and play with me! The curious polar bear who came face to face with a National Geographic ship

With its paws pressed against the metal hull, this curious polar comes face to face with an unusual object.

Pictured from the deck of the National Geographic Explorer in Norway's Svalbard region, the young female polar bear wowed onlookers as she inspected the giant vessel.

The image, taken from the bow of the ship looking straight down to the ice below, captures the polar bear looking up before cavorting about on the ice.

Hello - anyone up there? A curious polar bear tries to climb up the hull of the National Geographic Explorer ship in Norway

Discover your world: The polar bear cavorts about on the ice surrounding the ship

Wildlife photographer, Michael Nolan, travelled to Norway this June to capture the magnificent wildlife in the polar regions.

Spending over a month aboard the National Geographic Explorer, a small expedition ship run by Lindblad Expeditions, Michael was lucky enough to witness the unusual encounter last week.

'The female had to swim an open lead and cross more than a kilometre of ice to get to the vessel, which was stopped and shut down in fast ice on the island of Spitsbergen in the Svalbard Archipelago, Norway,' said the 48-year-old American.

Higher vantage point: The polar bear clambers to the top of some ice for a better view

'The bear showed intense curiosity as
she went from stem to stern of the ship, returning to the bow to stand
up against the hull itself.

Amazed onlookers from the bow gazed over the ship's railing in utter disbelief as the bear looked right into clicking cameras, he said.

Inspecting his images after the event, Mr Nolan, who has been a wildlife photographer for 22 years, said this may have been the bear's first human encounter.

'What a marvellous bear - she had probably only recently been weaned from her mother,' he said.

The National Geographic Explorer on July 1 in Svalbard, Norway

'We believe the natural curiosity of
this encounter is a direct result of never having been ear-tagged (a
tagging procedure designed to study polar bear migrations and
populations).

'This animal did not sport the white ear tags of an animal that has been in contact with scientist that have become so prevalent among the bears here on Spitsbergen.

'Never having had contact with humans she exhibited her natural inquisitiveness towards the ship and us both!

'"The highlight of the encounter was the standing on the bow, then rolling right in front of the cameras off the bow!'

Unlike the widely-reported plight of polar bears in the northern hemisphere, some experts believe Svalbard's polar bear population is globally one of only two on the increase (the other being in Canada), due to increased sightings and a strict ban on hunting the bears and some of their prey such as walrus.